IOWA 64, RUTGERS 80: KNIGHT, KNIGHT

Rutgers trailed just 90 seconds in its second conference win of the year, trouncing the hapless Iowa Hawkeyes 80-64.

Iowa started out ice cold, as we’ve seen before. The Hawkeyes trailed 4-11 before the first TV timeout, and were 2-11 from the floor. Luka Garza was 0-3 during that drought and 0-2 from three. Do what you will with that information.

Then Jordan Bohannon happened. He scored 9 consecutive points on three shots over the course of 1:26 to put Iowa up 13-11. This forced Rutgers to call a timeout, Iowa to bench JoBo because he was tired, and put in a lineup that included Brady Ellingson, Cordell Pemsl and Ryan Kriener, who managed to collectively turn the ball over approximately 127 times in 4 minutes, leading to Rutgers to go on a 12-0 run.

Some things happened the rest of the half:

• Rutgers went on a 25-6 run, where the Knights shot 75 percent from three (6-8) and 52 percent overall
• Iowa turned it over a bunch again
• An obvious kick against Iowa wasn’t called
• Bohannon hit another three. He led Iowa with 23 points

That’s kind of it. Iowa turned it over 9 times to make 38-24 at half.

If you were expecting a furious Iowa comeback like last week against Illinois, well I’m sorry.

The Hawkeyes turned it over three times in the first four minutes of the second frame and shot just 1-5 from the floor over that span. Rutgers built a 23-point lead with 14:30 to go and that was that.

Iowa kept turning the ball over, Dom Uhl got some minutes and a referee probably got a concussion.

Iowa did however manage to make it interesting. Nicholas Baer hit back-to-back threes after Bohannon scored 4 points off of free throws. Iowa was down 62-49 with 3:43 to go, and Rutgers turned it over by stepping out of bounds.

Tyler Cook missed a bunny lay-up. Corey Sanders hit a step back jumper (and later on a Tyler Cook-esque MURDERDUNK). Iowa started fouling. Hawkeyes go home angry 80-64.

Some other notes:

• People who think Jordan Bohannon can’t dribble or play defense are dumb.
• Luka Garza should probably wait a season or two to bring his outside game back.
• Matt Painter had losing seasons in his eighth and ninth seasons at Purdue.
• Rutgers scored 46 points total in its last game. The 80 points tonight was the most scored in a conference game in two years for the Scarlet Knights.
• Iowa had 16 turnovers.
• Back to that first point: the offense really does go through Bohannon. When he isn’t on the court other teams can just press Brady Ellingson and Maishe Dailey and force egregious turnovers. There’s a blueprint on how to beat Iowa and everyone knows it.
• Iowa plays No. 3 Purdue on Saturday morning. That will be fun to watch.